As I wrote about a few days ago, my beloved Bulls finally ended the Miami Heat's 27-game win streak. In that blog, I covered the game and talked about my take-away from the game. But what do I take away from the streak?
As you most likely have heard by now, the Miami Heat went almost two months without losing a game. The Heat were finally playing like the unstoppable force they were meant to be when the big three aligned in South Beach in the summer of 2010. They were just six games shy of tying the record for the longest winning streak in league history, which belongs to the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers, a team made up of Hall of Famers Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, and Gail Goodrich. Also, something that is worthy to note is that current Heat team president Pat Riley played on that team. The Heat came close to breaking a record "sports guy" Bill Simmons said he didn't think would ever be broken in his 2009 book The Book of Basketball. Anyway, there has been a lot of talk as to what the significance of this streak is and what its legacy will be.
As I stated before, the '72 Lakers had three Hall of Famers. Similar to that of the Miami Heat. LeBron James and Dwyane Wade are Hall of Fame shoe-ins. Chris Bosh is iffy. The Hall of Fame is something that was made for great players. I don't think he's great. I think he's good, but I don't think he belongs in a group of the elite. However, he has played in eight All-Star games, and he'll probably add at least two or three more. It's awfully hard to turn a guy away from the Hall of Fame if he's a ten-time all-star, much less an eight-time all-star. Wilt and LeBron are comparable. Both were physically dominant at their positions. Wilt was a beast in the paint and nobody could stop him- except maybe Bill Russell (I can save that for another blog). But the NBA had never seen a player like Wilt before. LeBron is also a one-of-a-kind player. He's a guy that can drive in and dunk on you, pass like a point guard, shoot, rebound and hold his own defending any position between a point guard and power forward. Both are supremely physically gifted and physically dominant.
These teams were similar in more ways than just their stars. At this time in the league in 1972, there were only sixteen teams. That meant that teams were more stacked and that talent was less spread across the league. Also, some of the best players were still playing in the ABA at the time like Julius Erving and Rick Barry. Another thing was that basketball wasn't as popular as it is today, the league was a lot newer and was still getting started up. For that reason, a lot of statistics and records in this era don't translate well in comparison to today's game. Today it's a completely different game.
While it may be a different game today, things aren't completely different. I think right now we are entering in to one of the weaker times in league history. The talent is still there, however it is spread across only a few teams. Right now superstars want to team up and play together, something that hurts the game. It leaves us with a lot of bad teams. Charlotte, Orlando, Detroit, Toronto, Cleveland, Phoenix, Sacramento, New Orleans and Minnesota are all very strong contenders to win the NBA Draft Lottery with their lackluster play this season. That's nine teams, and is nearly a third of the league. While you may say that there are bad teams every year, I can't remember a time where there have been teams that have been this weak. As of April 8, 2013, not one of those nine teams has managed to win 30 games. Among these nine teams, three of them- the Magic, the Bobcats and the Wizards- are in the Heat's division. Over the course of their streak, eleven of their games came against those nine teams, while seventeen were against teams with records under .500. The Heat caught a lot of breaks over that stretch too. Nevertheless, you have to respect a team that can do it again and again for 27 straight nights.
As I talked about in my blog about the Heat-Bulls game, the Heat are a supremely talented team. Because of the amount of talent they have, they should be winning the way they have been. But as I was also saying, the league is in a weaker time right now in my eyes. Let me continue to break down the rest of the teams in the league in terms of talent. In the East, I don't see any real title contenders other than the Pacers and the Knicks (who haven't won a playoff series since 2000. The Bulls, when healthy (with a healthy Derrick Rose), are the best match for the Heat in a seven game series. The Bulls aren't healthy right now though, so I don't expect them to get any further than the second round. The other four teams in the East simply aren't title contenders. Teams like Brooklyn and Atlanta right now have assembled teams that will be locks for around the 4-6 spots in the playoffs for the next few years. They're like the Orlando Magic with Dwight Howard. They were stuck in the same place every year and were never good enough to elevate to the elite level after they lost in the NBA Finals to the Lakers. The Bucks are in the eight spot right now and their record is under .500. Unless they can move up to the seven seed they'll likely be swept by the Heat in the first round. The Celtics are in the seven spot, clinging on for dear life. Just like the Bulls, they lost their star point guard Rajon Rondo to a torn ACL. That leaves us with two real challengers, the Knicks and Pacers. The Knicks are a team much like the Heat, with a lot of star power. Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony have combined for a total of twelve all-star appearances between the two of them. The Pacers are a different team. While they don't have a superstar, they have a lot of good talent, and can shut teams down defensively. If they follow what the Bulls did to the beat the Heat, they can really give Miami a good challenge. But that isn't the point. The point is that right now, the talent isn't as wide spread as it should be.
In the West, it's a little tougher. About a month ago a lot of teams were looking really strong, but now there are a lot of questions surrounding teams. I don't want try to dive too deep in to analyzing each team as I don't want to get too far off topic and I also want to save it for my upcoming NBA playoff preview. However, there are teams in the West like the Lakers that have pairs of superstars. Ever since the Heat came together in 2010, or maybe even when the Celtics brought in their big three in 2007, teams have been trying to match them while attempting to recruit other superstars. The Lakers brought in Dwight Howard to play with Kobe, as well as other former all-stars Steve Nash, Pau Gasol and Antawn Jamison. The Clippers have another dynamic duo in Chris Paul and Blake Griffin. I could keep going on but for teams that can't replicate that, they try to do the next best thing: build a team with a deep roster and a lot of good players that is fast, athletic and able to defend. Those are teams like Indiana and Denver. The problem is that because of the way things have been, the talent hasn't been spread across the league and top tier players are joining forces to play together. The talent is still there, the league's as talented as it has been in the past, however it isn't spread out the way it normally is.
I think that because of all of this, we are seeing teams going on bigger winning streaks. Last year the San Antonio Spurs had a 22-game win streak (including playoff games). This year the Clippers went on a 17-game win streak. The Nuggets have gone on both nine and 15-game win streaks this season as well. I think because of the way the league is today, we're going to see more of these streaks. Could someone actually break the '72 Lakers' streak of 33 wins? I think it could very well happen. Maybe the Heat will do it next year, who knows? But we're seeing more win streaks in this day in age. I don't think it is something that's necessarily good for the league.
I think perhaps the most impressive streak was the 22-game win streak from Tracy McGrady's 2007-08 Rockets. Even after all-star Yao Ming was injured after their streak reached twelve, the team still continued to win, winning ten more. The league was a lot tougher at that time, as I've been saying, the talent was more well-spread. Nothing was perfect, but I do think that the association was more competitive at that time.
Regardless of how impressive Miami's streak actually was, they did prove a lot over that time. LeBron James elevated his game and played at an MVP level. He is without a doubt this season's MVP and I think he's earned it. Last year I questioned the decision to give it to him. I argued that the Heat would still win 50 games and be a perennial contender if he wasn't on the team. I made my cases for Kevin Love and Chris Paul, who made huge differences for their teams. Chris Paul took a Clippers team that won only 32 games the season before, and made them the five seed in the playoffs and winning their first playoff series since 2006, which was also the last time they made the playoffs. But this year I think LeBron's earned it and he's separated himself from other players in the league. He's accomplished so much and taken a team to new heights. Right now if I had to pick a team to win it all, as much as it pains me to do so, I'd pick Miami. They're just so loaded and have so many weapons. I have no idea what we will think of this streak in a few years, and as I said before, maybe the Heat will even surpass this streak in the future. We will be seeing more winning streaks like this one in the years to come.
As always, thank you for reading, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on Facebook, Twitter (@vellvita7) or in the comments below
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